


First Date

by thegraeyone



Series: Stuck Between You and Me [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Coney Island, First Dates, Fluff, Other, Polyamory, arcade dates, duke is part italian, hand holding, how many headcanons can i put in one fic, joey wheeler is brooklyn king, non-binary duke devlin, the calzone debate rages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-24 15:26:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21640150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegraeyone/pseuds/thegraeyone
Summary: After nearly a year of seeing each other regularly, Joey and Duke take Seto on a date. A blatant excuse to write hand holding.
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto/Otogi Ryuuji | Duke Devlin
Series: Stuck Between You and Me [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1559926
Kudos: 10





	First Date

**Author's Note:**

> There are so many headcanons in this one fic and it's barely three pages. To run down: Joey is Brooklyn born and raised, Duke's mom was Italian, Duke and Joey have been dating for five(!) years at this point and they both like to cook, all of these kids are still on their hustle as game designer/professional duelist/CEO of KaibaCorp and living that long distance relationship life.

Seto wasn’t sure what he expected on his first date with Joey and Duke. They’d both pointed out this hardly counted, not after dinners and nights spent hanging out and hours spent in each other’s company, but Seto decided intent did matter. They had asked him out, he had said yes. He didn’t tell them it was his first date ever, but he suspected he didn’t have to.

They were in Joey’s native New York, and Duke tasked him with their plans for the evening. Seto hadn’t really expected red roses or a horse drawn carriage, but he’d been a little nervous when they’d arrived at a small cafe in south Brooklyn. The green awnings were faded, the metal seats losing any sense of balance, and the menu a placard on the wall that looked unchanged since the 80s, but the plate that came out of the kitchen was blessed with the best burger Seto had ever eaten, and fries that were both golden brown and perfectly crispy. They spent hours talking about the latest tournaments, Duke’s newest project, and where they were traveling to next. Both Duke and Joey were looking forward to their small break, where they could spend the next few months in Domino. Seto admitted he was jealous that he wouldn’t be able to spend most of that time with them. They ate and talked and stole each others fries as the city went dark around them. The streetlights shuddered on, and cars drove past as shop fronts illuminated. As they binned their plates, Joey declared the night unfinished. There was one place he wanted to take Seto, his favorite place in the city.

Coney Island was a place Seto was familiar with. His inspiration folders for various Kaibaland projects included images pulled from their Ferris Wheel and midway games, but he’d never seen it in person. He hadn’t had the time or attention to come down the small island. Joey’s excitement grew the closer they got to the entrances of the parks. Rollercoasters clattered past, with large signs for Nathan’s and excited tourists lined up. Duke watched him with a serene smile. They laughed when he threatened to win them a teddy bear, and they pulled him towards the rollercoasters, only for Joey to shake them off. Joey shoved the pair of them into an arcade. The dark space was lit with neon lights, and kids and adults alike tried their hand at claw games and jammed tokens into generation old machines. They played until their tickets mounted up and the arcade threatened to close.

“Seto should choose,” Duke said as they piled the tickets together. “How many is it?”

“Almost two hundred,” Joey said. Most of them had come from him. He played a chance game, of which the only skill boasted was pressing a button to stop a light. Seto had watched in horrified fascination as ticket after ticket spat out of the machine. “Not enough for a teddy bear.”

“How will I survive?” Seto deadpanned, and Joey gave a gentle punch to his arm.

They leaned over the glass casing of the prize booth. The ticket inflation had gotten out of control, Seto surmised, but he leaned down to a bottom row, beside sticky hands and mood rings and slinkies. He pointed at a prize and said, “That one.”

It was a yoyo, emblazoned with a swirling galaxy. Beside him, Joey grinned.

“Good choice,” he said as the teenager working the booth handed him the toy.

It was late now, and the parks were closing down. Seto fiddled with the yoyo as they walked, trying to remember all the old tricks he used to know. He handed it to Duke as they followed the planks of the pier out over the ocean, and they became increasingly frustrated as it tangled in their hand. Joey helped them get it loose, and then did a perfect trapeze with it, grinning at the pair of them as he did. Seto snagged it from his hands and quickly pocketed it.

Duke walked on his left, and Joey on his right as they moved away from the noise of the parks. The lights left the boardwalk well illuminated, but the ocean around them was a dark inkblot, washing in and out of sea. They were starting to see stars.

“Did you have fun?” Duke asked earnestly as they looked up at him. The bright bulbs of the parks reflected in their wide eyes, just the same as they glowed around Joey’s halo of golden hair.

“It was an entertaining evening,” Seto said.

Joey snorted and elbowed him. “Five star review from Seto Kaiba.”

Duke shook their head, too amused from the night to ameliorate the way they normally did, or maybe they were starting to realize they didn’t have to. “I love sightseeing with Joey. We spent a whole day in Little Italy last time we were here. We should go again.”

“Maybe,” Joey said with a smile. “If Seto can handle it.”

“I think I’ll be fine,” he drawled.

“Duke can plan the San Francisco trip,” he continued. “They know all the best places. They’ll pick a swankier restaurant than a burger bar too.”

“I like the burger bar,” Duke said and squeezed Seto’s arm. “He’s got really good taste, most of the time.”

Joey rolled his eyes. “I don’t wanna talk about calzones tonight. They suck, Duke.”

“They’re  _ authentic _ , Joey.”

“If I want a pizza I’ll just eat a pizza, not a hot pocket.”

Their eyes widened and nostrils flared. “You are taking that back right now.”

He laughed. “Or what?”

“Or I’m never making you a semifreddo again.”

Joey gasped in mock horror. Seto watched their interactions and felt not for the first time the breadth of history between them. Duke and Joey loved each other, that much was clear. This was a trip they made often, one they made together, and they shared an ease as they walked around that Seto hadn’t established yet. Anxiety started to gnaw at the empty hollow of his chest, but it slowed in its pace as he felt, to his left, a hand curl around his. Duke’s thin fingers were warm despite the cool night, and the pad of their thumb rubbed into his palm. Their own palm was dry and soft, and the well manicured nail pressed into his skin, gently, but in a way that made him thrill. And, as though he’d sensed it, on the other side Joey’s hand reached down as well, an action as easy as breathing. His hands were wider, the palm rougher, and his fingers slid between Seto’s like they were capturing him. The trio kept walking, the age old argument still going.

“Seto’s tiebreaker,” Duke was saying and tugged him closer. “Calzone thoughts, go.”

Seto was still focused on the sensations of their hands, and it took him a confused moment to respond. Both gave him a determined look. Seto considered, for a moment, that this was ancient banter, an argument without a clear winner for the rest of time, and they were asking him to change that.

“I’ve never had one,” he said. “I can’t eat cheese.”

“Oh my god,” Joey said with a roll of his eyes. “We’re never gonna get anywhere with this.”

“I keep forgetting,” Duke bemoaned. “How am I supposed to cook dinner without cheese?”

“We’ll have to try some alternatives.” Joey pressed closer. The three of them were as side by side as they could be without the potential to trip and fall. “When are you back in Domino?”

“A few more weeks,” Seto said.

“Plenty of time to prepare a menu.”

“That’ll be nice.” Duke smiled at him. “We’ll cook you a welcome back dinner. Oh, let’s do a board game night. Would you like that?”

Seto felt his ears heat up between both of their gazes. All the times he’d been flushed and breathless between them, he’d assumed it was for the obvious reasons. Now he realized the truth. They were always going to have this affect on him. Two people who wanted to share their experiences with him, who wanted to cook for him and hold his hand and take him places they loved so he could love it too. The feeling that built in his throat was overwhelming and he felt the smile on his face, and the way their eyes lit up when they saw it too.

“Yeah,” he said, and squeezed both their hands in tandem. “I’d like that.”


End file.
